Day: April 24, 2014

National Parks Week, National Library Week, Earth Day all worth recognizing, but National Princess Week? No way! Just what we need. The last week of April set aside to encourage princess dreams in girls. We laugh when a child says he or she wants to grow up to be a horse, but act like growing up to be a princess is a legitimate future goal.

Have you been to Disney lately? All the little and not so little girls dressed as princesses trying to enjoy a theme park in long dresses, with tiaras, and dress shoes. Not exactly the ideal apparel for Splash Mountain or the Grand Prix Raceway.

I hate to think that anyone falls for this marketing gimmick by Disney and Target and the Julie Andrews Collection. I guess Julie Andrews is a natural spokeswoman for National Princess Week since she provided instruction on princess how to in the Princess Diaries, (a movie I enjoyed) but she seems to have taken this whole princess thing a bit too seriously. Writing numerous princess books, a princess app, and a list of 30 Ways to Celebrate National Princess Week. I wish she’d go back to Mary Poppins or Maria Von Trapp, strong women instead of the helpless princess characters.

No helpless girls here!

Bikes & skates, not tiaras.

But tiaras weren’t banned.

Working hard to make ice cream.

Pink, a great color. Princess, a great character. But there’s so much more than pink and princess. Why not a little more balance? We definitely don’t need a week to celebrate princesses.